At 8 o'clock on July 14, after a powerful artillery preparation, the German 41st Infantry Division crossed the Venta River, without encountering resistance from the Russian units of the detachment of Lieutenant General Gleb Vannovsky, and advanced to Grivaishen.

In the end, Plehve agreed with the objections of Dolgov, who had a better idea of the emerging situation, and canceled the order to counterattack, but the units had already carried out the shift, and time was lost.

The failure also befell the 6th reserve division: during the offensive, it was subjected to enveloping attacks by the detachment of Dolgov and was driven back beyond the Vindava River: Russian troops captured 500 prisoners and 7 machine guns.

On the left, the positions of the Siberian riflemen were bypassed by the 6th Cavalry Division, and the Life Hussar Brigade went to the flank and rear of Dolgov's detachment.

P. Plehve did not expect such a low combat capability of the 7th Siberian Army Corps and blamed N. Sulimov for the failure, although he himself exhausted the troops with marches in different directions.

To cover the gap of 50 km formed between the 7th Siberian and 19th Army Corps, Plehve assembled a detachment of Lieutenant General G. Troubetzkoy (2nd and 4th cavalry divisions, 37 guns).

Having allowed the troops of the left wing of the 5th Army to withdraw at 14 o'clock, P. Plehve tried to close the gaps in the battle line and defeat the German Northern Group on the outskirts of Mitava.

Under these conditions, Plehve ordered the arriving 1st Cavalry and 53rd Infantry Divisions to hastily launch an offensive from Mitava, and the detachment of D. Dolgov, the 3rd and 37th Army Corps to withdraw.

The Russian 5th Army, although it avoided envelopment, forcing the Germans to move to a frontal pursuit, suffered heavy losses and absorbed the reserves of the front.

The commander-in-chief of the armies of the North-Western Front, M. Alekseyev, was seriously concerned about the situation in the Riga and Dvina directions, and ordered, to facilitate the task of Viliya River to Janów 1st Kuban Cossack division with attached infantry.

The commander of the Army of the Niemen, O. von Below, ordered the 5th Cavalry Corps with the brigade of Otto von Homeyer to cover the 30-km gap between the detachment of Major General Eberhard Graf von Schmettow for the development of the offensive (near Mitava) and the rest of the Northern Corps, send the 6th and 78th reserve divisions across the Laventa River, bypassing Panevėžys from the north, with the 1st reserve corps to advance directly on Panevėžys along the railway, and the 36th reserve and The Bavarian cavalry divisions (13 battalions, 27 squadrons, 94 guns) bypass Panevėžys from the south, hiding from the Kovno garrison by the 3rd cavalry division.

The capture of Panevėžys by the German troops gave them the opportunity to develop an offensive in three directions: to the north against Riga, to the east to Dvinsk and Vilna, to the south around Kovno.

However, the task of capturing Mitava was not removed: for this, the 8th cavalry, 41st infantry and 6th reserve divisions and 6 heavy batteries were included in the von Schmettov detachment.

The double advantage of the Russian side in forces and means put the success of the operation of the German troops against Kovno into question.

Therefore, initially the German 10th Army (commanded by Colonel General Hermann von Eichhorn) was limited to small strikes, improving positions.

But until July 27, the army received only one infantry brigade and 5 heavy batteries (including one 42-cm mortar), after which E. Ludendorff informed H. von Eichhorn that it was impossible to further strengthen his troops.

However, at a meeting at Headquarters on July 28, the Quartermaster General of the staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, General of Infantry Yuri Danilov, demanded "to abandon the desire to hold the line of the Vistula River at all costs and in their decisions ... to accept exclusively the requirements of the strategic situation, striving at the first opportunity to strengthen and consolidate our position in the Riga–Schaulen region, which is acquiring paramount importance.

The 6th reserve division captured Bauska and advanced 10 km east across the Aa River: the Homeyer brigade turned north, passing as far as Mežotne.